The Hillsdale College women’s basketball team defeated defending Division II National Champion Ashland University 82-72 on Saturday.
The win was a team effort, sophomore Kelsey Cromer noted, with four players scoring double digits: juniors Megan Fogt and Kadie Lowery with 16, sophomore Ashlynn Landherr with 13, and sophomore Sarah Theut with 10.
“They had a sense of pride amongst each other,” assistant coach Jon Mock said. “The bench was active and had energy, and the timeouts and huddles were productive.”
Mock also said Saturday’s win against Ashland was a complete 180-degree turnaround from their loss on Thursday, Jan. 23, against Lake Erie College.
Between the two games, head men’s golf coach Mike Harner came into practice to motivate the team.
“You are what you do when it counts, and anything worthwhile always counts,” Harner said.
Mock explained that the team uses some sort of motivational quote or picture every game, and they used Harner’s quote as inspiration against Ashland.
Cromer said she was proud of how Hillsdale bounced back against Ashland after losing 62-54 to Lake Erie, the lowest-ranked team in the GLIAC.
“We have a problem of playing down to our competition,” Cromer said.
The game was close, with the Chargers down by only two points – 52-50 – until the last two minutes of the game, but Lake Erie went 10 for 12 on free throws in the final two minutes of the game.
“We didn’t play together, and we didn’t execute the simple things,” Mock said, “but we were still in the game and failed to realize that.”
Hillsdale doubled Lake Erie’s turnovers, 24-12.
“We gave them the game in turnovers,” senior Angela Bisaro said. “We are the better team, and we could have won.”
While Hillsdale lost to Lake Erie, junior Megan Fogt won her third South Division Player of the Week award this season – the most of any player in the conference.
Fogt had 17 points, 21 rebounds, and seven blocks against Lake Erie, and 16 points, 22 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks against Ashland.
After her first set of back-to-back 20-rebound games, she now has five 20-rebound games this season, which is the most in the nation.
With 39 blocks so far this season, Fogt beat her previous record of 35 blocks, and is now in second place in school history behind Katie Cezat, who had 100 blocked shots in the 2008-2009 season.
While Fogt is having an impressive season, Hillsdale’s win against Ashland cannot be attributed to her alone. Cromer explained that against Ashland, the Chargers came together and turned their individual efforts into a team effort.
Mock said the goal for the rest of the season is to continue the team feeling, starting with their upcoming game at home on Thursday, Jan. 30 against Malone University. Then on Saturday, Feb. 1 the Chargers will face Walsh University and on Monday, Feb. 3, will face Findlay University.
Malone is now the top team in the South Division after Hillsdale knocked Ashland into second place. Hillsdale is tied for third with Findlay, making these important games for Hillsdale to get into the GLIAC tournament, as only the top four teams in each division qualify.
“We want to come back and start getting a bunch of wins in a row,” Cromer said. “We have to do better than all the other teams.”
